Tracking the market and economic trends that shape your finances.

Wall Street Roundup: Home prices in the ditch. Goldman and Libya.

May 31, 2011 | 9:06
am

Gold: Trading now at $1,540 an ounce, up 0.2% from Friday. Dow Jones industrial average: Trading now at 12,513.71, up 0.6% from Friday.

Bad numbers. House prices are pushing new lows, according to data released this morning. Investors are anticipating more bad news this week, including Friday's jobs report. All that aside, hope about European bailouts is sending stocks up.

Goldman's Libya saga. The Wall Street Journal tells the surprising story of how Goldman Sachs lost Libya's sovereign wealth fund over a billion dollars and then tried to make it up by giving the country a preferential stake in the bank.

Bad bankers. A few weeks after Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested for allegedly attempting to rape a New York hotel maid, an Egyptian banker was taken in on similar charges at the Pierre Hotel.